The US is scrambling to get back into the mass flat-panel display business, and researchers at Ohio’s Kent State University’s Glenn H Brown Liquid Crystal Institute claim to have developed a new smaller, lighter, more energy-efficient liquid crystal display that they say could revolutionise portable computing. The key, United Press International reports, is a new polymer-stabilised cholesteric liquid crystal, which does not require a backlight, giving a substantial saving on power consumption, size and weight. It is also non-volatile, not requiring refresh charges to maintain its state, and contrast is claimed to be better than current displays. And it does not require a glass superstrate – plastic will do. Patent applications have been filed and work is under way at Kent State to develop colour versions and to achieve display speeds fast enough for television.
